History

Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski

The Czartoryski is a family of a Grand Ducal Lithuanian descent from Ruthenia. Their ancestor is the Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas's son, known after his baptismal name Constantine (c. 1330 - 1390), who became a Prince of Chortoryisk in Volhynia^{[citation needed]}. One of his sons Vasyli Chortoryiski (Wasyl Czartoryski) (c. 1375 - 1416) was granted an estate in Volhynia in 1393, and his three sons John, Alexander and Michael (c. 1400 - 1489) are considered the progenitors of the family.^[1] The founding members were Ruthenian and Eastern Orthodox, and then converted toRoman Catholicism during the 16th century.^[1]

It was Michael's descendant Prince Kazimierz Czartoryski (1674–1741) Duke of Klewan and Zukow (Klevan and Zhukiv), Castellan of Vilnius who reawakened their royal ambitions at the end of the 17th century. An intelligent, well educated man^{[citation needed]}, he married Isabella Morsztyn daughter of the Grand Treasurer of Poland and built "The Familia" with their four children, Michał, August, Teodor and Konstancja. The family became known and powerful under the lead of brothers Michał Fryderyk Czartoryski and August Aleksander Czartoryski in the late Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 18th century, during the reigns of monarchs Augustus II the Strong and Stanisław Leszczyński. The family attained the height of its influence from the mid-18th century in the court of August III of Poland. The Czartoryski brothers gained a very powerful ally in their brother-in-law, Stanisław Poniatowski, whose son became the last king of independent Commonwealth, Stanisław August Poniatowski, near the end of the century.

The Czartoryski's Familia have seen the decline of the Commonwealth and the rise of anarchy and joined to camp which was determined to press ahead with the reforms, thus they sought the enactment of such constitutional reforms as the abolition of the liberum veto.

Although the family estate at Puławy was confiscated by Russian Empire in 1794, during the third partition of Poland, the Familia continued to wield significant cultural and political influence for decades after, notably through the princes Adam Kazimierz, Adam Jerzy and Konstanty Adam.

The Czartoryski family is also renowned for the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow and Hôtel Lambert in Paris.

[edit]Coat of Arms and Motto

The Czartoryski family used the Czartoryski arms and the motto, Bądź co bądź ("Come what may", literally 'let be, that which will be '). Their arms were a modification of the Vytis or Pahonia— the traditional Gediminid (Gediminaičiai) coat-of-arms that is currently the official arms of the Republic of Lithuania and a traditional symbol of Belarus.

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